Eight minutes is all it took once the polls closed. The electronic polling system worked fast enough to calculate within eight minutes the 64th mayor of the City of Toronto. And that mayor is Rob Ford. “Toronto is now open for business,” said a happily relieved Ford when interviewed shortly after CP24 declared him the winner of the 2010 municipal election. The people of Toronto sent a message last night — a desire for change at City Hall. While Ford fell just short of a majority of the vote (47 per cent) the remainder was primarily split between George Smitherman (35 per cent) and Joe Pantalone (12 per cent), allowing neither candidate the chance of catching Ford on this day. The desire to see change also resonated when Ford captured more of the vote than David Miller did in the 2003 and 2006 elections. An anti-Ford sentiment had been growing among segments of voters, growing more and more as the election loomed and Ford’s campaign pulled into a commanding lead. Major candidates Sarah Thomson and Rocco Rossi dropped out to make way for a Ford-Smitherman showdown. But despite the polls, which suggested just a few days ago the narrowest of margins separating the two frontrunners, this election was not that close but rather a decisive victory for the North Etobicoke Councillor. Ford ran a simple, straightforward campaign that involved hammering home his key talking points of cutting city spending, over and over again. The term “gravy train” has become a part of Toronto’s lexicon over the spring and summer. And Ford once again continued that message in his acceptance speech last night.

With Election Day tomorrow, an important question to ask is whether or not the message delivered by candidates resonated with Torontonians. With the city discussing the relationship between cars and cyclists for some time, we asked the general public for their take on the discussion, and how it relates to their view of Toronto's next mayor. Every candidate released platforms including cycling in their transportation plans this election. It has been a discussed issue at more than a couple mayoral debates. Here is what you had to say about cycling in Toronto under a new mayor: "Nobody wants to come out and make a big stand out of fear of dividing their supporters. No candidate has really come out and absolutely said, hands down, that they will represent bicyclists in the election." —Trish Tervit, 44 "Their [cycling] plans are, I think, way down the list. Everybody's screaming about taxes and what to do with them and what not to do about them. And the cycling issue has fallen down the list of priorities compared to the debate that began six or seven years ago. "I think out of necessity we will be reverting towards more scooters, more cyclists, and I think that's great. Fewer cars are fantastic." —Michael Flaxman, 50

Amid recent polling figures showing dipping support late in the race, Rocco Rossi has formally resigned from his campaign to be the next mayor of Toronto. By removing himself, Rossi leaves three major candidates remaining — George Smitherman, Rob Ford and Joe Pantalone, none of which Rossi is endorsing. The poll in question, conducted over the Thanksgiving weekend for News 1010 by Ipsos Reid, has placed both Smitherman and Ford well in the lead over third place Pantalone, predicting a two-way showdown for the mayoral chair. The figures show Smitherman in the lead with 31 percent of decided voters while Ford sits in second with 30 percent of the decided vote. Joe Pantalone registered with 11 percent voter support for third position. Rossi polled the lowest at four percent. It's of note, however, that 25 percent of Torontonians still remain uncertain which direction they will cast their ballot. Rossi was a fiery candidate who spoke loudly and confidently at debates and challenged his opponents on a regular basis. Rossi consistently urged Torontonians to help change the culture at City Hall by electing a mayor who had not previously sat on city council. The three remaining major candidates have all spent time serving on council.

The Toronto cycling community has to be rather enthused with the election thus far. There has been plenty of talk about cycling in the debates and every major candidate has come forth with some sort of plan in their platforms. There are signs in this election that cycling is no longer seen as a recreational activity by Toronto's political base, but a valid, mainstream form of transportation. Cycling, for instance, has been incorporated into mayoral discussions relating to transit and transit platforms. With voters heading to the polls at the end of the month, let's see where the major players stand in regards to our favourite two-wheeled transporters. Here is a breakdown of how each of the four candidates positioned themselves on cycling throughout the campaign. Rocco Rossi – Avid cyclist who supports cycling infrastructure off major arterial roads of the city Making headlines early in his campaign by opposing bike lanes on major arterial streets, Rossi grabbed further attention by stating that he would personally paint over the Jarvis Street bike lanes himself were he elected mayor. Having always laid claim to being an avid cyclist, Rossi and his platform has revolved around keeping bike lanes off of the major arterial roadways to move cyclists over to the less trafficked, and, therefore, safer side streets. Just last week he announced a plan to create a separated bike lane system:

A welcome change in discussion was ushered in Wednesday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) with the Toronto Mayoral Arts Debate. Seats filled up just minutes after the doors opened and I had to watch with the overflow at OCAD. It's testament to how much Toronto cares about the arts, a topic largely left out of discussion in the mayoral race thus far. The four major candidates — Rob Ford, George Smitherman, Joe Pantalone and Rocco Rossi — were joined by outside mayoral hopeful James Di Fiore this evening. A former telefundraiser who has worked on more than a hundred art events in four cities, as well as a local journalist, a spoken word and hip hop artist, Di Fiore helped to inject a youthful, artistic expertise to the discussion. Stating in his opening comments that he had no illusions of winning, Di Fiore said his primary purpose for running was to help engage the younger voting base. “In 2006 people my age and younger, approximately 18-35, voted at a staggering rate of 18 per cent. When I found this out I wanted to run for mayor,” said Di Fiore. "It’s not apathy they feel, it’s an exercise in futility.” Throughout the discussion, Di Fiore served as a watchdog of sorts over the other candidates. A welcome addition that kept the debate somewhat on track for the moments the conversation regressed to name calling, which it did routinely.

This morning mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson officially announced her exit from the mayoral race. Trailing the other four leading candidates with 6.7 percent of support from decided voters in the latest poll, it was an uphill battle for Thomson. She announced her decision to step aside was in favour of supporting another candidate instead of continuing on with her campaign. Thomson is throwing her full support behind George Smitherman. Throughout her speech of  endorsement for Smitherman, Thomson often compared him to Rob Ford and their many differences. "I remain resolute and determined to continue to deliver positive change to the people of Toronto — and so I ask you to join me today in supporting George Smitherman to be Toronto’s next mayor," said Thomson in the announcement. With low polling figures this late in the race, Thomson could step aside rather than continue forward to the Oct. 25 election date for a number of reasons, including a climbing debt of $75,000. However, she cited the betterment of Toronto as the main reason for pulling out of the race. In her official press release, Thomson never names Ford, though she does say that she is not committed to supporting a candate "who leverages our differences."

If there’s something to be said about the CP24 mayoral debates, it's that, for whatever reason, they really bring out the argumentative side in all the candidates. The discourse turned sour yet again on Tuesday night at the Masonic Temple. On this evening, however, the debate was far more focused as the trailing candidates rallied together in hopes of bringing front running Rob Ford’s surging popularity in the polls back within reach. A recently released poll, conducted for the Globe and Mail, CTV and CP24, placed Rob Ford with a 14-point lead in the polls at 45.8%. George Smitherman with 21.3%, Joe Pantalone 16.8%, Rocco Rossi 9.7%, Sarah Thomson 6.7%. After the release, Nik Nanos, the president and chief executive officer of Nanos Research, declared, “As of today, this election is about Rob Ford and whether he has what it takes to be mayor.” The debate on Tuesday did nothing to dissuade that opinion.

Last week, mayoral frontrunner Sarah Thomson released her bike plan — Bike City — a thorough and comprehensive vision for the future of cycling Toronto's streets. Bike City has been called an ambitious platform and is the most extensive bike plan, including physically separated paths, released by any candidate so far. “Toronto can be a world class cycling city, it absolutely can,” Thomson told Spacing this week. “I think the will is there, I think the people are there, and it’s really about enabling the people. “If you look at just about every major city in the world, most of the progressive ones have a bike plan.” The benefits of cycling in the city are not just based on adding another form of transit for Thomson, but also adding an environmentally friendly alternative as well. “It’s a form of transit, it’s a green form of transit and we have to encourage it," she explains. "If we don’t build it we don’t encourage it, we don’t give an opportunity where there could be one.” The Bike City plan focuses primarily around the sections of downtown already heavily trafficked by cyclists. While Thomson has included routes for the more suburban areas in her plan as well she acknowledges that a lot of attention is given to the streets downtown. She states that, however, based on the present conditions, “the massive need is downtown right now.” “There’s an actual physical need for [bike lanes] downtown. The streets are smaller downtown and we really have to share them and we have to define, 'This is our place for bikes.'”

A little bit of consensus on the economy and, get this, hardly any yelling matches in last night's debate. The first of three debates in the Toronto Debates 2010 series was held at the MaRS Institute last night. All the candidates did confront the issue of Toronto’s future economic growth head on, sticking primarily to their platforms and key talking points. Yes, the candidates were acting on their best behaviour. Moderator Carol Wilding opened by stating her desire to provide a “spirited but thoughtful debate,” imploring the candidates to use their given time to explain their points rather than attack one another. For the most part, the candidates heeded the advice. But yes, barbs were thrown. Candidates criticized opposing platforms while answering their questions. However, on this night, civility won over outbursts and insults. As a result, while the mayoral hopefuls spoke, the audience was treated to talk around platforms, past experiences and credentials. There was even an odd moment of consensus as all five candidates found a common point to rally behind: Toronto wading too deep in a self-centred state.

A welcome change in discussion was ushered in Wednesday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) with the Toronto Mayoral Arts debate. And seats filled up fast. I had to go to the overflow live streaming section at OCAD. People care about the arts in this city. The four major candidates — Rob Ford, George Smitherman, Joe Pantalone and Rocco Rossi — were joined by outside mayoral hopeful James Di Fiore this evening, a panel appointment which helped to shape the evening. A former telefundraiser who has worked on more than a hundred art events in four cities, as well as a local journalist, a spoken word and hip hop artist, Di Fiore helped inject a youthful, artistic expertise to the discussion. Stating that he had no illusions of winning, Di Fiore said his primary purpose for running was to help engage the younger voting base. “In 2006 people my age and younger, approximately 18-35, voted at a staggering rate of 18 percent. When I found this out I wanted to run for mayor,” said Di Fiore. He explained this lack of interest from the younger voters, saying “it’s not apathy they feel, it’s an exercise in futility.” Throughout the discussion Di Fiore served as a watchdog of sorts, and a welcome addition that kept the debate somewhat on track the moments the conversation regressed to name calling, which it did routinely.